New Favorite Kitchen gadgets- the trusty little dehydrator & magnificent mandolin slicer

A few weeks ago, I bought a dehydrator off of craigslist with the goal of preserving our huge harvest of cherry tomatoes.  Little did I know how much I would love this trusty little dehydrator.  It a matter of a couple weeks, I have made:

1)  "Sun Dried" or dehydrated tomatoes
2)  Lots of Cinnamon Apple chips
3)  Apple & Raspberry Fruit Leather
4)  Apple Fruit Leather
5)  Zucchini Chips (drizzled with olive oil & seasoned with Adobo)

The unfortunate part of dehydrating is that I only have 6 round trays to fill!  And once the produce is fully dried it shrinks up to be a fraction of the mass that I started with.  But that "shrinking" is what makes each item so flavorful in the dehydrated state.  And a second unfortunate part of dehydrating is that I love each thing so much, that it only lasts a day in this house.

All of the above items that we've dehydrated are completely home grown and organic.  The apples were graciously given to us by a friend who has a tree that produces more apples than they know what to do with.  I should tip them off to the Joys of a dehydrator. Some of the apples came from our own trees as well.  The raspberries, tomatoes and zucchini were all grown at Redwoodshire.  So all these tasty treats have been free, minus the time and energy it took to prepare the food and run the dehydrator.





APPLE & ZUCCHINI CHIPS-
I have been hand cutting the apples and zucchini to dehydrate into chips.  I just ordered a mandoline slicer  to make the task quicker and the chip slices more uniform.  And boy it is magnificent!  There is a dial that allows you to decide how thick of slices you want to cut.  It took a fraction of the time it took me to cut the old fashion way.  It usually takes about 1 apple per tray.

 I drizzled the apples in lemon juice to prevent browning and then sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar.  For the zucchini slices I drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled them with Adobo seasoning.






FRUIT LEATHERS-
I found some easy directions on this Simply Recipes Blog, that I used as a guide to make my first batches of fruit leather.  My dehydrator came with 2 plastic sheets for making fruit leather.  First I pealed and cored the apples.  Then I cut the apples into smaller chunks, drizzled them with lemon juice and threw them into a sauce pan.  The process is exactly the same as making apple sauce.  I simply added a little bit of water to a sauce pan, and brought the apple mixture to a boil- cooking until the apples were soft.  For the Apple Raspberry leather, I added a handful of our raspberries to the pot when the apples were soft enough to be blended.  Then I pureed the mixture in my Ninja blender.  I poured mixture onto plastic sheets in dehydrator and let the dehydrator to it's thing.  Once they were finished, I cut into smaller pieces and stored in a Ziplock bag.

As previously mentioned, I LOVE dehydrating! And my new mandoline slicer makes the task so quick- in a matter of 10 minutes I can wash, peel, slice, sprinkle with cinnamon & load all 6 trays.  I am so proud of myself in preserving our abundant harvest and not letting it go to waste.  There are so many different ways to preserve produce, and by the end of the summer it's nice to find different ways to enjoy the harvest of the garden.  I can't dehydrate things fast enough.  Maybe someday I will get a larger unit.

Raspberries Galore!

Summer 2014

This is our 2nd season of raspberries here at Redwoodshire and it's the best we've ever had.  Our old house didn't have good sun, and therefore the plants didn't do well.  We planted our Raspberry row in the Fall of 2013.  Then we built the trellis in the summer of 2014.  This Spring (2015) many new canes grew and filled in the gaps between all the individual plants we had originally planted. As the photos demonstrate, the plants looked about the same in early Spring as they did last Summer.  By the first picking in June, the new canes had shot up and filled our Raspberry row right up.  It's difficult to tell where our original plants were. I highly recommend ever-bearing raspberry plants.  They produce a light crop at the end of June and early July.  Then in mid- September they produce a huge crop!  We picked 3 quarts of berries last week, and today another quart.  It's absolutely amazing!  Organic home grown, fresh picked raspberries- can't get any better than that.  We're hoping to spread some of our plants into a second row to make room for all the new canes that will come next Spring, and thus eventually increase our yield.  I am also eager to plant a Queen Anne Golden raspberry, as soon as I can find a place to purchase them.  We may have missed our chance for this year.

Spring 2015

We had no idea how quickly raspberry plants spread.  Honestly raspberries are somewhat as easy to grow as weeds!

Fall 2015

 As can be noted from the photos, our trellis needs a little help.  We need to counter balance the tension outside of the posts with some sort of contraption.  In researching growing grapes and different trellises, I suspect we will fix these when we are building grape trellises sometime in the future.  For now, it is what it is.

Our old door got a make over

Our main entry door is pretty shabby for many reasons.  Putting money forth to purchase a brand new door is costly. Therefore, I've wanted to paint it since we moved in. In the midst of refinishing my rush chairs from craigslist, I needed to order more Everlasting white Americana Decor chalk paint & cream wax.  Amazon is pretty awesome, and my paint arrived in 2 days.  Not only did I get paint for the chairs, I bought a new (to me) color with intentions to paint our entry door as well.

Today I took a break from rushing the first of three chairs to paint the door. Check it out- it's Charcoal black now.  It would look a lot better with a new handle & lock, but that's a project for another day.

I have never painted anything black before.  It's a little scary to do because it would take a lot of paint to re-do if I didn't like it.  I love the way black chalk paint looks in all the photos I see of other people's projects.  I am pleased with how this door turned out. Though there is not much I can do about the broken bar (which looks a bit silly), overall the door looks much better. Though I, like most people would have loved a brand new door, this option was much cheaper and resourceful.  One can of chalk paint & a bit of finishing wax for less than $20.  This re-do should hopefully hold us over until the door is older and less functional and we actually "need" to buy a new door.  Wondering if I should paint the interior cross bars black to match the exterior, or leave it as is...  Any thoughts?

So many tomatoes!

We've had an overabundance of cherry tomatoes this season, and at this point we're getting more than we can eat and give away.  We made some salsa out of one picking that turned out pretty decent.  As I was putting some over ripe tomatoes out in the compost pile, I got the idea of sun dried tomatoes.  When I looked into how to make sun dried tomatoes, I learned that most "sun dried tomatoes" are actually dehydrated in the oven or a dehydrator.  I did find a couple blogs that explained how to do sun dried tomatoes, so I gave it a try.  First matter of importance was hot & sunny days, which we had a nice run of good, hot days recently.  First I cut our tiny cherry tomatoes into very thin slices (4).  Then I placed a piece of foil down in a pan and placed the slices in it.  I put the pan onto the dashboard of our car with the windows rolled up.  I left them there for 2 days, and then tasted.  They were quite tasty- somewhat like tomato flavored fruit snacks.  So needless to say, I checked out how much dehydrators cost and was pleasantly surprised that there are some very inexpensive ones (along with very expensive ones).  The Laird suggested that I check craigslist.  Lo and behold someone was selling a brand that usually cost between $50-$80, for a mere $25.  We settled on $22 and Redwoodshire now has a dehydrator.

Though dehydrating fruits and vegetables takes a long time, the labor involved is minimal.  It took me about 50 minutes to halve a bag of cherry tomatoes, dip them in a vinegar/water solution and place on trays.  This is much quicker than canning!  Plus it adds variety to our preserved foods.









The process took much longer than other blogs suggested.  I am not sure if it's because our dehydrator is cheap and does not have a temperature dial or if it's because I followed the recommendation of the instruction manual and left the vent open for the first 6 hours.  Once I shut the vent, progress really picked up.  I placed them in a plastic freezer bag, inside a Tupperware container and am storing them in the fridge for later snacking and use.  I am considering filling a canning jar with olive oil, garlic, fresh basil and these sun dried tomatoes as another way to flavor & preserve for meals.

Lady genevieve picked these sunflowers.  They are sitting on the window sill above my apron sink in the kitchen.  Sunflowers are one of my favorites!

Refinishing Rush Chairs- the Lady of Redwoodshire's current project

Remember this project from a last year?  Check out my Weaving Rush Chairs post for the process.  We only have 3 of these rush seat chairs for our dining room table, so I have been on the lookout for a few more to have a full set.  Though I found ones that were similar, they were in pretty good condition and were going to cost more than what I was hoping.  I was hoping to find a good deal, considering I know how to rush chairs and can fix up ones that may be in poor condition.  

I finally found a GREAT deal!  Though the ladders and other parts of the chair are slightly different from the ones we had, it was too good of a deal to pass up.  The chairs were in fair condition, as the previous owner had spray painted them (partially because she ran out of paint?!).  She had even spray painted the rush seats, which looks like it made a mess of the chairs.  The rush was in need of repair anyway, so the spray painted seats didn't deter me.  I got all three chairs for $25!!  Amazing!

BEFORE  PHOTOS:

So this is one of my current projects. First I removed the rush seats.  I am currently using white chalk paint to re-paint the wood chair frame.  I am giving the dark wax a second try on these chairs, to give them an antique appearance.  Once one chair is finished, I will update with more photos.  We are on our way to having a full set of 6 chairs for our dining room table.

Other exciting Redwoodshire news fit to print:  The first step of updating our dining room is happening this morning.  We sold the wood stove that is currently taking up too much space, and it is getting picked up today!  YAY- this makes me so excited.  We sold it on craigslist- the buyer is coming from over an hour away.  He got a good deal on it- which I don't mind considering I have gotten so many good deals through craigslist recently.  Spread the Joy of great deals!  August was a great month for Craiglist finds at Redwoodshire.  I will have to post about that next time.

"TOO MANY TOYS!" The TOY LIBRARY

Most parents can attest to the reality that along with children- come toys.  First all the baby gear and then toys, and then even more toys.  Babies become children so quickly.  And with every age, you need different toys to stimulate, entertain and teach them.  Before you know it, your house is FULL of toys.  And it's often a mess. There is a book called, "Too Many Toys" written by David Shannon.  I enjoy it because the mother in the story reminds me of myself- though we don't really have "too many toys" yet. Children really only stay interested in each toy for a few months at most, and then they
move onto a different toy.  And these changes are all part of learning and growing- which is the exact inspiration and theme of why I started this blog in the first place.  "Learning to Grow, Growing to Learn".

Recently I learned about the Toy Library here in Rochester, NY.  We have been visiting our local library on a weekly basis ever since lady genevieve turned 1 year old.  We love the story time on Wednesday mornings, geared toward toddlers.  Miss Kathy, one of the children's librarians is wonderful.  She knows lady genevieve and lord Alastair by name, which makes me enjoy our time there even more.  So lady genevieve has a little friend named Esther and her grandmother told us about the Toy Library at the Lincoln Branch library in the city.
So what is the Toy Library?  A place to check out and borrow toys!  The Toy Library at the Lincoln Branch exceeded my expectations.  There are so many toys.  There are many toys intended for play while visiting the Toy Library, and even more to check out and take home for up to 3 weeks.  Each child is allowed to check out up to 9 toys at a time.  At the entrance, there are themed activity backpacks that come with a bag of books related to that particular theme.  Our first visit, we picked up the Farm themed backpack & books.  There were puzzles, farm animal figures, a magnetic activity board, stamps, lincoln log farm, block puzzles and more.  This week we picked out a wooden alphabet puzzle, a magnetic dress up doll, zoo animal figures and picture plates.  We were there for a hour and a half, and I am not sure where the time went.

I have been thinking about doing a post about the Lincoln Toy Library since our first visit a few weeks ago.  There is not a lot of information that I could find online or photos to show what it looks like.  Though when I first started looking into it, I found that it is a national movement and there are TOY LIBRARIES all across the country.  I found this Toy Library history about the Lincoln Branch today.  If you are local and have children, I highly encourage you to visit the Toy Library.  I am so impressed and so grateful for this wonderful resource that is 100% free to us.  It is and will continue to be a place we visit monthly.

Our Anniversary Tradition- A Treasure Chest

Having just recently celebrated 5 years of marriage, I thought it appropriate to share a fun anniversary tradition that we have.   Sometime around getting married, a friend of ours, who also happens to be a wedding photographer shared with me a cool idea one couple incorporated into their wedding ceremony.  They made a time capsule and each picked out things to place in the time capsule- all of which they shared during their wedding ceremony.  They will open it at 10 or 20 years of being married- not sure which.  I loved the idea, but changed it a little to be an anniversary tradition.  I found a cute little treasure chest box at JoAnn Fabrics.  Then I stained and polyurethaned it.  I presented the idea to the Laird and he was on board.

I tend towards not wanting to accumulate material possessions- and the thought of each of us spending money on a gift for each other for our anniversary seemed a little funny, considering all things & money are shared at this point.  Though not into gifts, I think spending money on a shared experience is totally worth it.  So to simplify and remove the pressure of our anniversary we took gifts out of the equation.  Instead the goal is to think of and find a small token/ treasure that represents something from that previous year of marriage.  We give those little treasures to one another on our anniversary.  The beauty of getting to remember special parts of that particular year is awesome.  So 2 treasures go into the box each year.  In addition to sharing our little token for that year, we have fun looking through the other treasures and remembering the years past.

Here's what is in our box so far:

YEAR 1- "N" key chain w/ gratitude cards (Laird)- representing the year that I became a Nestlen.  A Monopoly house- representing our purchase of another rental property.

YEAR 2- Indiana Jones Lego figure (Laird) & "Oh the Places You Will Go" tiny book cover (me)- both were for our trip to Peru & Hike to Machu Picchu.

YEAR 3- Little baby girl monkey figure (Laird) & "Little Miss Chatterbox" book (me)- both to represent lady genevieve entering our lives.

YEAR 4-  Print of a Dawn Redwood Tree (Laird)- the purchase and beginning of Redwoodshire & a bottle of various seeds that we used to plant our first garden at Redwoodshire (me).

YEAR 5-  A small Lego arrow (Laird)- representing the birth of our son.  "Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.  They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court." Psalm 127:5.  A mini "Tale of Two Berries"book (me).  (Little Lego arrow is still at the nephew's house;))







The longer we are married, the more the years tend to blend together.  It's difficult to remember when things actually happen in your life.  I absolutely love this tradition, and look forward to sharing the treasure box memories with lady genevieve and lord alastair as they are old enough to understand.